Testing the Synthesis Technology E430 Morphing VCF Beta Version

video upload by boxoftextures

"Testing a beta version of the new Synthesis Technology E430 Morphing VCF. It's in a sense the filter from the Oberheim SEM except with added filter morphing controls not in the original. The thing sounds amazing. It's a morphing VCF in that it goes from low pass to bandpass to high pass at the turn of a knob (or via voltage control), or at the press of a button the knob changes to low pass to notch to high pass. That's a ton of flexibility, and you can use it to make all kinds of sounds. It also has voltage controllable resonance as well. I've basically rearranged my smaller modular keyboard case to give the E430 a permanent home there and moved my "regular" filter into an empty spot in the big case.

Also used:
E330 Multimode VCO
E580 Resampling Mini-Delay
Intellijel Dual ADSR
STG .VCA
Batumi 1974 Quad LFO
2HP Mult (x2)
Waldorf kb37 Controller Keyboard

https://synthtech.com/

Mastodon: https://vmst.io/@selgart"

Generative Sequencing with 4Pockets MidiStep

video upload by boxoftextures

"Another excellent app from 4Pockets. Although I do wish they capitalized MIDI properly LOL. MidiStep is a very flexible sequencer app with a lot of available options, almost all of which also happen to be exposed in AUM for some automation fun. It's basically a 16-step sequencer, but you can have multiple patterns chained together in various ways for longer sequences if needed. In addition, there are three lanes: Notes, Octave, and uh, Other LOL. That last one has a Sequencer section with velocity, gate, divider (i.e., ratcheting) and other lanes, as well as a Modulation section. It's really flexible and powerful.

What I've done for this video is have two instances of MidiStep, one for a sequence and one for chords. I also use Euclidean, also from 4Pockets, to trigger a new set of random notes on occasion. With these three sequencers I have a controlled-but-random generative sequence, all done without human intervention once the Play button is tapped.

You can do lots of 'normal' things with MidiStep as well, of course, but I just love to build things that make 'automatic' music every now and then.

Featuring
4Pockets MidiStep
with
4Pockets Euclidean
Arturia iSEM
Klevgrand Pipa
DiscoDSP Discovery
and
AUM

Recorded and edited in ScreenFlow
All patches, as always, my own

Mastodon: https://vmst.io/@selgart
Twitter: / selgart
Patreon: / boxoftextures

4Pockets MidiStep https://apps.apple.com/us/app/midiste..."

SynthTech E490 Ladder Filter Quick Minute

video upload by boxoftextures

"Synthesis Technology E490 Ladder Filter Quick Minute

This new filter arrived yesterday so this is my first time trying it out. Sounds amazing! Basically a version of the Moog modular ladder filter but with a few additions. I got the black faceplate, of course LOL.

Also used:
SynthTech E330 Multimode VCO (x2)
Intellijel Dual ADSR
2HP Mult (x2)
STG Soundlabs .VCA
SynthTech E580 Resampling Mini-Delay
Jones O'Tool Plus Oscilloscope
Waldorf kb37 Controller Keyboard

Recorded and edited in ScreenFlow

Mastodon: https://vmst.io/@selgart
Twitter: / selgart
Patreon: / boxoftextures"

Ambient with Harmony Bloom

video upload by boxoftextures

"Well, in my head this was going be five minutes long and be kind of a quick demo of an ambient technique I figured out for making a Bloom-ish generative ambient setup but with "modern" apps in AUM. Bloom is an app by Brian Eno—well, two apps, really—that has various generative modes that you can interact with or just have them play on their own. And in an online discussion group I'm in someone was bummed that Bloom is "just" a standalone app and not AUv3 or Interapp Audio. So I thought about it for a bit and came up with a way to make something Bloom-ish.

So the original thought was five minutes or so of generative music that I could talk over and explain my methods. But I just couldn't "ruin" it by talking over the music, it was too jarring. So right off the bat it was twice as long as I'd originally intended. And then I set it going again, this time with a tiny bit of shimmered piano, and didn't talk over it again, so it kind of ended up four times as long as I'd wanted LOL. So please accept my apologies, and I'll see if I can organize it into chapters to make it easy to navigate.

Basically I'm using iSEM as my synth, driven by Harmony Bloom, and then going into Weeping Wall for a cascade of echoes and then into Eos 2 for some (as usual) incredibly lush reverb. And a Pianoteq Steinway going into BLEASS Shimmer in the second piece. Many more details in the video.

Featuring
Harmony Bloom
with
Arturia iSEM
Aqeela Adam Music Weeping Wall
Eos 2
Modartt Pianoteq
BLEASS Shimmer
and
AUM
and honorable mention to Audio Symmetric Zoa

Recorded and edited in ScreenFlow

Mastodon: https://vmst.io/@selgart
Twitter: / selgart
Patreon: / boxoftextures"

00:00 Intro
00:31 Eno's Bloom
02:23 iPad App Setup
06:50 Harmony Bloom Details
09:20 Ambient Bloom 1
13:48 Thoughts on this Setup
17:55 Ambient Bloom 2

Moog Labyrinth Quick Minute

video upload by boxoftextures

"Just got a Moog Labyrinth and wanted to do a quick demo. Most of the demos I've seen are very, well, percussive, and I wanted to show that it can play notes as well. Wasn't 100% sure about this one, but having played with it for maybe an hour now I'm totally sold on it. And super happy they included a Hirajoshi scale as one of the 16, which both surprised and delighted me!

This quick minute patch uses one oscillator for notes and the other for modulation, but you can set the second one to audio rates and have the two sequences at different speeds playing off one another. Haven't gotten that far yet but looking forward to it. Also can't wait to clock the Labyrinth and the Subharmonicon together and then patch between them.

This is 100% Labyrinth, no external effects where used. Although to be honest I really wanted to put a reverb/echo on it LOL."

Roland S-1 and CME WIDI Jack Proof of Concept Quick Minute

video upload by boxoftextures

"Just got a Roland S-1 synthesizer (tiny!), and then maybe a week later got a CME WIDI Jack to go with it. This was the first time hooking them together, along with an Xkey Air. Worked really well, and is a super portable setup. This is just a quick minute video just to show it all working, so not an in-depth exploration.

I already have several Xkey Airs, and have used them with my several CME WIDI Masters. I could definitely see getting two or three more S-1s, WIDI Jacks, and Xkeys. Could fit an entire live setup in a backpack that way.

This is 100% S-1, no external effects where used."

Mastodon: @selgart@vmst.io
Twitter: https://twitter.com/selgart
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boxoftextures

Quadrature VLFO Quick Minute

video upload by boxoftextures

"A quick minute with the Quadrature VLFO, from Cyberwerks Heavy Industries. Cherry Audio mentioned this somewhere a few days ago, possibly in a tweet I can no longer find, and my immediate thought was, "this will be brilliant for drones." And it is! The VLFO (the V stands for 'very') lets you make ridiculously slow LFOs, but the module also puts out three additional signals that are 90° apart from each other. Which makes it perfect for long, slow drones as each LFO can drive multiple things very, very slowly, but each output is different, because when one is high another one might be low.

So in this patch I have two VLFOs, four out-of-phase outputs in each, running at two different very slow speeds (70,000ms and 15,000ms cycles, respectively) and controlling the volume level of the eight partials in an additive VCO. And I have another VLFO (33,000ms) controlling the volume of the mixer channels of three supersaw oscillators. And just for fun I threw in a super-slow envelope generator to slowly fade the patch in and out (12 seconds in, 50 seconds out).

In a way this is a terrible demo LOL. Because a quick minute is too short to really hear the very slow changes that are happening, and I thought about just making a much simpler straight demo with much faster and more obvious changes but, well, didn't, alas. But I think you can get the idea, and see what these VLFOs are capable of. And also, they're not limited to being very slow either, just to mention it.

No external effects used, everything's in Voltage Modular.

https://store.cherryaudio.com/modules...

Mastodon: https://vmst.io/@selgart
Twitter: https://twitter.com/selgart
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boxoftextures"

Korg Arp 2600 M Quick Minute

video upload by boxoftextures

"A quick minute with the Korg Arp 2600 M. VCO 2 and 3 playing square waves. VCO 1 as a square wave LFO, doing both pulse width modulation on VCO 2 and being the clock for the sample and hold.

No external effects used, just the 2600 M

Mastodon: https://vmst.io/@selgart
Twitter: https://twitter.com/selgart
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boxoftextures"

AUM Keyboard Zones Quick How-To

video upload by boxoftextures

"A quick how-to on how to set up keyboard zones in AUM on the iPad. I connected a CME Xkey Air keyboard to AUM, then added three instruments—bass, piano (with far too much reverb LOL), and “guitar.”

To set up the zones you need to go to the MIDI input settings for each channel and specify the note ranges. After that you can play from the bottom of the keyboard, and as you move upwards you go from bass to piano to guitar. Or you could overlap the ranges, or layer them, or any number of other things depending on what you’re trying to accomplish."

Late night Syntrx blooping snippet

video upload by boxoftextures

"Late night Syntrx blooping. Totally internal, no external input or control."

Patching the Octave Cat

video upload by boxoftextures

"Another amazing vintage synth recreation from Cherry Audio, this time the Octave Cat. Although possibly it should really be The Cat, from Octave. Either way, it's fun to program and sounds great. Always wanted one, back in the day. They also made the Kitten, a smaller version, and the Catstick, a joystick you could hook up to your other synths. Still want one of those!

And the Cherry Audio software version is excellent. It has character, and power. And it adds an extra page the original didn't have, with effects and a sequencer. Oh, and adds polyphony too. But it was the '70s, and we didn't really have such things back then, or at least most of us didn't.

In this video I'm making four patches from scratch. As usual. What's a little different is that I usually make a few before recording a video, just to get a feel for the synth. For this one though I just dove right in, so at times it may have taken me a little while to notice things, or figure them out. But it's not an overly complicated synth so wasn't a huge issue. And it sounds great. Which I may have mentioned before LOL

Mastodon: https://vmst.io/@selgart
Twitter: https://twitter.com/selgart
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boxoftextures"

Patching in TB Lowtone

video upload by boxoftextures

"New synth from Toneboosters, makers of Flowtones. But this is Lowtone, which they're calling an innovative bass synthesizer plug-in. TB says they're using loudness-domain harmonic synthesis in Lowtone, which is aimed at making in their words 'deeper, more consistent and production-ready bass sounds.' I haven't made any specifically bass-y patches yet but I've had a blast programming things. It has three VCOs but also a VCN, a voltage controlled noise generator, which was great fun to play with. The three VCOs have dozens of waveform variations, and there are a pile of different filter types as well. There are two xLFOs, X for extended, which I think go all the way down to 0.01 Hz (!). There's also a gate section, which is kind of like a sequencer for modulations. You can maybe use it like a regular sequencer if you like, although I haven't had a chance to try that yet, but each step can have its own shapes, giving you a lot of different sound-shaping options.

I've only made a handful of patches so far but have had great fun making them. A couple of 'normal' sounds, one haunting rhythmic drone-ish thing which I find totally mesmerizing, and one batch of absolute chaos using only the VCN as a sound source (LOL).

This particular video was done using Lowtone on the iPad, but there's also a Mac/Windows version as well so you should be able to transfer patches back and forth as needed.

Great fun, highly recommended.

Stuff use
d TB Lowtone - https://www.toneboosters.com/tb_lowto...
ScreenFlow - https://www.telestream.net/screenflow...

Mastodon: https://vmst.io/@selgart
Twitter: https://twitter.com/selgart
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boxoftextures"

Binarhythmic Walkthrough

video upload by boxoftextures

"A new Bud app! Binarhythmic, from Cem Olcay. Binarhythmic, which seemingly has far too many H's in the name because I keep leaving some of them out, is a combination of binary and rhythmic (and I only said combination because I can't spell portmanteau LOL). It's a really interesting sequencer app as instead of beats and measures it counts in binary, with each digit (potentially) being a trigger. This opens up all sorts of possibilities, because instead of "simple" patterns of four or eight notes you're counting in binary, so 1, then 2, then 4, then 8, 16, 32, etc. So you could use three binary digits to have a kick on 1 and a snare on 4, but you can go way beyond that to have some notes be conditional on others or to "gate" notes so they play for a while until a trigger hits and then they stop, to start up again at the next trigger. Endless possibilities. And that's only with three digits. If you use eight digits your sequences can now have 128 beats. And it doesn't stop there because you're transmitting MIDI notes, so you can use them to trigger other events, such as starting/stopping other sequencers, say.

When I first tried out Binarhythmic it seemed very random—flashing lights, things happening at odd times and unpredictably. But once I got the hang of it it all started to make sense. We generally work in even measures, all with the same length for the most part, but in Binarhythmic each measure can be twice as long as the last. The beauty of this is that you can use it to trigger seemingly random events because humans just can't keep track of large numbers like 32 or 64, so if something happens once every 32 or 64 notes it feels like it might be a little out of the blue.

So a couple of video housekeeping notes. Seems I was a little careless with where I ran my headset cable and picked up a bit of hum along the way. It's not terrible, but let this be a lesson to us all. But mostly to me. Also, there's a bit of chord noise as the headset mic too easily picks up the vibrations if one is not paying attention. Again, "one" being me. And lastly, reasonably sure I was able to avoid picking up any playground wailing children noise but just in case I missed any it won't be too much of a surprise. Hopefully.

And finally, the quote intended use unquote for Binarhythmic is rhythm. So of course I did not do that and instead headed out towards some sort of ambient generative territory LOL. But fun was had along the way, and of course that just shows how usable and flexible Binarhythmic can be. Definitely worth a look.

Stuff used
Binarhythmic - http://keybudapp.com/binarhythmic
Arturia iSEM - https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-stor...
Atom Piano Roll 2 - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/atom-pi...
Pipa - https://klevgrand.se/products/pipa
Ravenscroft 275 - https://www.vilabsaudio.com/ravenscro...
Velvet Machine - https://phonolyth.com/products/velvet...
AUM - https://apps.apple.com/app/id1055636344
ScreenFlow - https://www.telestream.net/screenflow...
Audio Technica BPHS1 broadcast headset - https://www.audio-technica.com/en-us/...

Mastodon: https://vmst.io/@selgart
Twitter: https://twitter.com/selgart
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boxoftextures"

Making a Wavestate Patch

video upload by boxoftextures

"This is all my drummer buddy's fault! LOL

Doc acquired a Wavestate, and I've always loved the original Wavestation. I even have one, but it's one of my several synthesizers that need a new display backlight, alas. But Korg came out with the Wavestate a few years ago, and they also have a software version. So I was "forced" to pick it up so I could make patches to send westward. And honestly it's amazing, capable of incredible changing textures, among many other things, of course. You can have a sequence of up to 64 samples per layer, and have them either crossfade into each other or sound discretely, and you can separately have up to 64 notes with each keypress, or just have it play the one(s) you're physically playing on the keyboard. That's per layer, and there's four of them, with a handy programmable joystick to let you fade the different layers in and out. Incredibly powerful. I have the software version, but now I'm seriously considering getting the hardware version as well.

In this video I'm making a new patch from scratch, and then I show a number of other patches I've made over the past few weeks.

E. Doctor Smith

/ @e.doctorsmith7766
Korg Wavestate native https://www.korg.com/us/products/soft...

Mastodon: https://vmst.io/@selgart Twitter: https://twitter.com/selgart Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boxoftextures"

Wavestate Native snippet

video upload by boxoftextures

"Two patches I made this evening in Wavestate Native, played live with no overdubs."

Tera Pro BrainZ Tour

video upload by boxoftextures

"So I was planning to do a Tera Pro video this week just, well, just because. There were a good number of things that took me a while to either figure out, or perhaps just to notice, so I've been thinking of doing not a demo and not a tutorial, but more of a tour. But then they released the BrainZ module as an add-on, based on the Mutable Instruments Plaits module, that you can add to Tera Pro. So I did a tour of the basics of the BrainZ module instead, and I'll do a more general tour at a later date.

So the good part is that BrainZ adds a ton of options to Tera Pro. It's got 16 different synth models, and a good number of controls for them. Basically I set up an 8-step sequence and let it run while I went through each of the different models. So, true confession, I recorded the video, edited it, put in the labels, and only when it was more or less done was when I realized I'd gone through the models row by row, whereas the manual goes through one column and then down the next. Totally my fault! And hopefully I'm not going to confuse everyone. At least I noticed and was able to change the labels so they'd be correct. But to make matters worse, I skipped one! (15. Analog Snare Drum Model.) No idea why, but thankfully at least the one I skipped I used in my demo patch, so you at least get to hear it. Honestly I was wondering what all those crazy icons meant, and it turns out they make sense, and some of them are related to each other (the drum ones, for instance). So remember kids, read the manual first and then make your video.

Note that there's a lot more capability in BrainZ than I've shown here as I've only done some basic modulation. There's more in it than I've shown.

I totally recommend Tera Pro, and I have both of the optional add-ons (the other one being the Waves wavetable module). Once you wrap your head around the perhaps slightly unusual user interface it makes a lot of sense, and making your own patches can be very rewarding once you've gotten comfortable with it.

http://www.virsyn.net/ios/tera-pro.html

Mastodon: https://vmst.io/@selgart
Twitter: https://twitter.com/selgart
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boxoftextures"

Sequencing Sequencers

video upload by boxoftextures

"Really powerful sequencer technique, I spent a lot of the past weekend working on variations of these sequences and am pretty stoked about it. The concept is not my original idea, was from an 'I had a breakthrough' post in one of my iPad music Facebook groups. Using one sequencer, Euclidean, not for notes but to start and stop two other sequencers, so you end up with ever-changing note patterns. Sounds amazing, really happy with the idea and with the results.

AUM as the studio, with Euclidean stopping and starting two copies of Atom Piano Roll 2, which are sending notes to two copies of iSEM. And another iSEM playing a bass sequence from Euclidean for good measure.

Euclidean, from 4Pockets - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/euclide...
Atom Piano Roll 2 - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/atom-pi...
Arturia iSEM - https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-stor...
AUM - https://apps.apple.com/app/id1055636344

One thing I neglected to mention in the video is the gate length. Default is I think 25%, which is fine for most normal purposes. But if you set it to 5% it might only play the first four notes of a 19-note sequence. But on the other hand, the reason my A sequence plays twice through before it stops is because I set the gate length to 80%, so the "note" is held for quite some time, which then means that the sequence it triggered keeps playing. Different gate lengths, different effects. I spent a good bit of time on that in the first take but completely forgot it in the second, alas.

Also, you can probably do this with any number of sequencers, doesn't necessarily have to be Euclidean and Atom Piano Roll 2. I just happen to like those.

Mastodon: https://vmst.io/@selgart
Twitter: https://twitter.com/selgart
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boxoftextures"

Wires Walkthrough

video upload by boxoftextures

"Just got Wires, a new effect plug-in from AudioThing/Hainbach. Don't think I've done an entire video about an effect before, although now that I think of it I might have made some looper and shimmer videos. But regardless, this was great fun, instantly felt I was in some '70s Le Carre spy movie! Did this on an iPad but there's also a computer version as well (Mac/Windows/Linux) which I also have.

Basically you're running your sound through a Soviet wire recorder, and there's lots of controls to mangle things in subtle or not-so-subtle ways. Tons of fun! I used a sequencer in this demo as that was my immediately imagined use case but now I'm thinking about how it could be useful for vocals, say.

I called this video a walkthrough, which I haven't really done before. It's not exactly a demo, but it's also not a complete user guide or review either. I do demonstrate most of the controls though so you should be able to get a good idea of what's possible.

Recommended.

https://www.audiothing.net/effects/wi...

Mastodon: https://vmst.io/@selgart
Twitter: https://twitter.com/selgart
Twitter: @selgart
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boxoftextures"

Textquencer - Text Based MIDI Sequencer

Textquencer Quick Minute video upload by boxoftextures

"Just got Textquencer, a new 'bud' from Cem Olcay. It feels like it was one of those bonkers 'hey, what if I…' ideas you get when you least expect them. Absolute madness, in the best of ways LOL

It takes your text and converts it to MIDI notes. Can be randomly chaotic, reined-in ordered, or even manually composed, if that’s your style.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/textque...

Mastodon: https://vmst.io/@selgart
Twitter: https://twitter.com/selgart
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boxoftextures"

via http://keybudapp.com/textquencer

"Textquencer is a text-based MIDI Sequencer. It creates MIDI sequences from the plain text!

Each letter in the alphabeth triggers a note in the scale you are working.

Letter A triggers the Note C (the first note) in the C-Major Scale
Letter B triggers the Note D (the second note)
Letter C triggers the Note E (the third note)
Letter H triggers the Note C but an octave higher"

Korg Modwave Quick Minute

video upload by boxoftextures

"Just got the new Korg Modwave Native synth app. I have wavetable synths both hardware and software, but this one is just fantastic. Haven't even had near enough time to go deep on it yet but it's reasonably straightforward to work with (although I'll still read the manual as there's tons of stuff here). Hundreds of wavetables, and samples as well, which I haven't even gotten to yet. And 2,000 modulation slots (!). Gosh, I hope that's enough LOL.
Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@selgart
Twitter: https://twitter.com/selgart
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boxoftextures"